Groceries to Get if You Have an Empty Pantry

This shopping list will provide nutritious meals for a month if you cook carefully. I’m assuming that you have access to a good basic cookbook that gives recipes for “scratch baking.” This list is relevant as a checklist even if you have some groceries on hand already. Compare prices; the store may have some brand names cheaper than their generic/store-brand equivalents.

• Cabbage, green, one large head. Later in the month, go back to the store and get a second head.
• Potatoes, Russet/Idaho, ten pounds
• Carrots, a five-pound bag
• In an extra shopping trip between buying the two heads of cabbage, get some in-season zucchini or in-season sugar-pie pumpkin–as much as you think you can use. These veggies are versatile (you can even roast the pumpkin seeds) and dirt-cheap.
• Frozen chopped broccoli, 32-ounces
• Vegetable seasonings: five pounds of yellow onions; one large bulb of garlic; and, if you like Asian food, a small knob of ginger
• Legumes: lentils, pinto beans, or whatever two kinds of dried beans are your favorite. Note that Boston baked beans are made with navy/pea beans, and that chickpeas/garbanzos/ceci take the most time/energy to cook.
• Cheapest-per-pound fruit, probably Fuji apples in a bag, three pounds–you will be using these solely for baking a crisp or cobbler or pie. (Note that unless you choose to buy shortening [that is, unless you have the funds for it], your pie crust will not be flaky.) If any are left over, you can prepare dumplings or bake them. Cooked apples, at least in my experience, have ever so much more taste than the fruit does in its raw form.
• Oranges, cheapest kind, one dozen for use in cooking (you will be using their juice, zest/grated peel, and sometimes their pulp), not eating out of hand (except leftover pulp, as a fruit salad). I use oranges often as a make-do when I cannot afford lemons. Of course, accompanying seasoning has to be adjusted.
• Yeast–you need two three-envelope strips, or, cheaper in the run of the next month or two, the jar
• Baking powder
• Baking soda–since you can use this for cleaning purposes as well as culinary, you can get a large box if its price works out for you
• All-purpose flour (you don’t need unbleached), ten pounds; Rolled oats, two pounds or more (you will make cereal like granola and dessert crisps from the oats, not to mention the only energy bars that you will be able to afford)
• Sugar, five pounds
• Cocoa, the smallest size OR one bag of chocolate chips OR one bar of unsweetened baking chocolate–you will be able to make one chocolate dessert
• Non-fat dried milk, a box that makes eight quarts of milk–and that does not contain individual envelopes if possible
• Spaghetti, two pounds
• Vegetable (soy–but it’s not labelled generally) oil, one quart approximately
• Margarine, two pounds. Be sure to get stick margarine, as you cannot bake with margarine spread (it is a mixture of water and margarine)
• Canned tomatoes, whole–you can cut them up in the can with kitchen scissors. If you don’t have the scissors, it’s more cost-effective to buy the ready-cut. It will probably be cheaper to buy three cans of 29-ounces each, but you may find that six cans of 15-ounces are less expensive.
• Tomato paste (the cans are always six-ounces)–six cans
• Small bottle of cider vinegar; distilled white vinegar in whatever size is cheapest (often the jug–a full gallon–is!)
• Eggs–in a supermarket, the eighteen-eggs packages are cheaper per egg than the dozens. If you can find a package of 60 eggs, grab it. Otherwise get three eighteen-eggs packages (that’s 54 eggs) or get the more expensive five packages of one dozen eggs each. Recipes generally assume that your eggs are the “large” size.
• Other “center-of-the-meal” protein sources. Tofu (not the shelf-stable kind, which is hard to cook with) is often the cheapest, but it has the shortest life, even in the refrigerator. So I don’t recommend getting more than one package. Textured vegetable protein is very cheap in bulk; it is very expensive when branded. So assuming that you are looking at fish and meat/poultry, I suggest that you get four 5.5-ounce cans of chunk light tuna in water, two whole chickens (preferably five-pounders), and one pound of ground turkey, chicken, beef, pork if you’re neither Jewish nor Muslim (observant)–whichever is cheapest. This suggestion is for feeding one person with abundant leftovers frozen, or two people with less in the way of leftovers. The tofu will make one skillet meal. The textured vegetable protein will make any dish that can be made with ground meat. The tuna’s use is up to you–you might want to splurge and make tuna salad out of mayonnaise you whisk using your eggs, although it won’t taste “perfect” with a vegetable oil base. (I suggest mixing the tuna with fresh breadcrumbs in casseroles.) The chickens will provide “planned leftovers” of meat for casseroles and broth for many purposes. The ground meat is to flavor marinara sauce.
• Herbs, spices, and extract: SALT, whatever you do, don’t forget it; pepper (if you can find a grater filled with peppercorns, the taste of the freshly-ground triumphs over the ready-ground); turmeric; basil; oregano; ground ginger (for baked goods); thyme (don’t waste it by forgetting this: measure it into your non-dominant palm and use the fingers of your dominant hand to crush it. It doesn’t break down in cooking); vanillin/imitation vanilla extract.
• Fresh herb: parsley (store it in a water-filled glass in the fridge, and change the water every few days–it will last weeks.) In-season, you might desire to get cilantro as well.

The following are nice if you have the funds:

• Four bananas for special treats eating out-of-hand
• A bunch of celery
• Herbs and spices: Bay leaves; dry mustard (you can mix an Asian wet mustard; there are many recipes, using your canned tomato products, for ketchup); curry powder (Madras is the mild type); and, tarragon.
• Cornmeal; rice
• Elbow macaroni
• Pasteurised cheese product (like the Velveeta brand); cottage cheese (store it upside-down in the refrigerator for long life)
• Shortening
• Raisins–be sure to get a one-pound box, not the high-priced snack packages
• Peanut butter and/or peanuts (cheapest in the shell)
• A lemon if you can get a large one for 60 cents or less–use it judiciously as even that is a crazy high price
• One can of frozen apple juice concentrate to defrost, pour into a spare ice cube tray, and re-freeze. Pop the cubes out into a freezer-storage bag, and prepare the called-for amount of apple juice in the many recipes that require it.

Tell me in the Comments section where you think I could have done better in giving this advice….

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